


Underneath the Fading Sun

by Nanashi Jones (miaoujones)



Series: Dummy [1]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Friendship, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-04-30
Updated: 2007-04-30
Packaged: 2017-12-19 05:42:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/880091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miaoujones/pseuds/Nanashi%20Jones
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kira Izuru isn't like other Hollows.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Underneath the Fading Sun

**Author's Note:**

> The title is taken from lyrics to Portishead's "Half Day Closing." 

Kira Izuru isn't like other Hollows. For one thing, you can't see his hole. It's not a matter of clothing covering it up: Kira's hole, high up in his chest cavity and just off center, doesn't break the skin.

You can’t see the hole but you can see evidence of it in his mask. His mask is flesh rather than bone and is perfectly human looking, bearing an almost exact resemblance to himself. If you didn't know him well or if you were too careless to give him more than a glance, you might not see the mask. But it's there, all right. It's there in the smile Kira wears but doesn't mean. Renji never thought Ichimaru's smile was sincere but looking at Kira's these days, at the empty curve of his lips, Renji feels he might, in retrospect, have to reassess Ichimaru's smile. Or he would, if he cared to give Ichimaru Gin a thought on his own free time. Which he doesn't.

He looks at Kira now. No, Kira is not like other Hollows. Renji says as much: "Something's not right with Kira."

Shuuhei follows Renji's eye line to the figure on the path. Kira must sense their gaze because he turns as he passes and offers them a raised hand, a wider mask.

Shuuhei raises his own hand in greeting. "Well," he says to Renji, giving Kira's profile one last look before returning his attention to the paperwork piled on the grass beside him, "his captain did just defect with the traitors." 

"So did yours," Renji points out, fingering the edge of an account he is considering starting on, "and you're not the way he is." 

"Yeah." Shuuhei makes a notation on the report he's going over. "But I wasn't fucking mine."

Renji switches his gaze hard to Shuuhei, who turns the page to scrawl his signature on the next. Renji glances at Kira's back, smaller, more distant now. It's not the first time the insinuation has been floated but he always thought it was a joke before. "You really think he was fucking Ichimaru?"

Shuuhei glances up as he reaches for the next report. "I think Ichimaru was fucking him, yeah."

Renji keeps watching Kira; keeps watching the empty space after Kira rounds the corner.

"Does that bother you?"

Renji turns to see that Shuuhei has set down the papers in favor of looking at him. Renji isn't sure what part of it is supposed to bother him. As Shuuhei knows, he can be flexible about protocol, especially where protocol itself is pliant. And besides, there's no written rule about sleeping or not sleeping with your captain. Or anyone else's. And it's not like there aren't captains who spend their nights together, or once did.

'Course, it's something else when it's one of your best friends.

"No," Renji says. "It's just, I never thought of him that way before.

"Not that I'm thinking of him that way now," he adds.

Shuuhei looks at him another moment before returning to the papers in his lap. "We should go see him tonight. Get him to come out with us," he says, flourishing his signature and reaching for the next report.

Renji realizes he is still fiddling with the edge of the same report in his own lap and that he has fallen further behind Shuuhei than usual. "Yeah," he says, opening the cover at last, "we should."

 

When Kira opens the door to their knock that evening, he is smiling; of course he is. "Hisagi," he says with a smile; and with a smile as he turns, "Abarai." Kira smiles. "What brings you here?"

"Just came to see you," Shuuhei says with a smile of his own. Renji, uneasy with smiles just now, simply holds up the bottle they brought with them. Kira's smile doesn't waver but Renji thinks he catches a flicker in Kira's eyes.

Then the smile is back up, flattening the flicker. "Please," Kira smiles as he steps aside to invite them in. "I'll just go get some cups," he says as they seat themselves.

"No need," Shuuhei says just before he takes a deep swig directly from the bottle.

"Academy-style tonight, then." Kira joins them on the floor and accepts the bottle, bringing the mouth to his own lips and then passing it to Renji. And so they sit, drinking and passing the sake around and talking about things somewhere between everything and nothing, whiling away the evening not unlike how they used to back in the day.

"I saw you running drills," Shuuhei says conversationally to Kira, and Renji turns to him in surprise, wondering when that was. "You looked really good out there. You're getting stronger, I think." 

Renji looks back at Kira in time to see him duck his head and come up with a slight flush that is more than alcohol, come up with genuine pleasure at the corners of his mouth. Renji finds himself smiling too, not just relieved but pleased that there's still a real smile in Kira. The real Kira must be in there too. Renji is seized with an urge to reach that Kira, to reach in and drag him out. Impulsively, he reaches over and takes Kira's hand, bringing their elbows to the floor in the standard arm-wrestling stance. "Let's see just how strong you are!" he challenges, a glint in his eye.

Kira slides into position, the smile reaching up to spark his own eyes. When Shuuhei gives them the word to start, Renji finds his arm slanting the wrong way towards the floor. With a grunt and a grin, he pushes back hard, harder than he thought he'd have to; he wonders when he started underestimating Kira's physical strength. He almost laughs at himself but Shuuhei is doing that enough for both of them.

They go at it like this until someone, Renji isn't sure who, turns it into full-on wrestling. He has weight and reach on his side but Kira keeps wriggling out of his grasp, laughing, as quick-bodied as he ever was. As Kira maddeningly continues to elude him, Renji calls to Shuuhei for help—and then, despite Kira's protests about the referee getting involved in the melee, it's all three of them rolling around. They finally get him pinned, Renji holding his arms down overhead, Shuuhei sitting on his legs and slapping his belly just like in their Academy days, pushing layers of clothing aside to get in a good smack on bare skin— 

"Stop," Kira gasps. "Stop, please. Stop." Even as Renji is watching, Kira's smile slips. It is this, more than the words, that makes Renji let go. Kira sits up as soon as he is released, knees drawn up, pulling his hem down to cover even his feet. Then in the next moment he is looking at them, smiling. "Please forgive me," he smiles at them; "I must have worn myself out more today than I realized."

"Please forgive us for intruding," Shuuhei returns smoothly. "Thank you for your hospitality."

"There is nothing to forgive." Kira smiles. "Thank you for the excellent sake and your equally excellent company."

Renji is not sure what the fuck has just happened here or why they're suddenly talking like this, so when the others stand he just stands too and doesn't say anything. Kira sees them to the door and bids them good night, smiling all the while.

As he and Shuuhei walk, Renji can't stop thinking about that last smile and the way the one before it fell off Kira's face. That doorway smile gave Renji an urge as strong as the one that made him reach over to wrestle Kira, except this time he didn't want to drag Kira out of himself, he just wanted to knock that fucking smile right off Kira's face. 

He says as much and Shuuhei gives him a look. "I wouldn't really hit Kira just because of his smile," Renji amends.

"I think it would probably make him smile more if you did," Shuuhei says.

When Renji doesn't respond, Shuuhei gives him another look, one Renji is tiresomely familiar with: it's the look that means he has missed something obvious. "What?"

"You really didn't notice?" Shuuhei asks, coming to a stop and forcing Renji to halt with him. "Just before he sat up?"

"'Course. The smile slipped."

Shuuhei studies his face. Renji tries to be patient, to wait for Shuuhei to just tell him whatever it is.

"Well, you _were_ up by his head," Shuuhei says, more to himself than to Renji, even though he's looking right at Renji. He considers for another moment and then comes out with it: "He was hard." When Renji just blinks at him, Shuuhei sighs through his nose, then elaborates: "He got an erection when we were holding him down, when I started slapping him. Or maybe he was aroused before that, but that's when I noticed it."

Shuuhei is not quite looking at him now and Renji lets his own gaze drift off-center. "What does that mean?" he finally asks.

"I don't know," Shuuhei says. "Maybe nothing." But he doesn't sound like he believes his own words and Renji doesn't either. 

They start walking again in silence. Shuuhei doesn't say what he is thinking this time and Renji is glad; he already knows that Shuuhei thinks Ichimaru was fucking Kira.


End file.
